but those kids needed to just let that ball go. That kid that fumbled that must've felt like absolute dirt after the game. Your first reaction is to just catch the ball, but there was no reason to catch it at all.

No reason to have one, let alone, two kids back there. It's the last play of the game and you're up. If you don't want the kid to return the miss, then why have him back there? Obviously he should have just gone down, but I don't even see why he was in that position to begin with. To keep the refs honest on the call? Come on.

bouje - not a bad point. But not sure I want my safety valves there, anyway. And they seemed to be instructed to catch a short FG... or maybe not. Oh well. Low level football, I don't really care.

but it reminded me of a very similar play that occurred about a decade or so ago in a high school state title game. I don't remember the names of the teams or any other details; I just saw the highlight on TV. Anyway, Team A has a slim lead and they've got the ball on their own 1-yard line with only a few seconds left. All they have to do is run one play and they win. Team A's QB drops back in the end zone, runs around to let the time expire, and when he sees the clock hit all 0s, he just throws the ball in the air and starts celebrating. One of Team B's defensive linemen then immediately jumps on the ball, which was ruled a fumble, and Team B wins the championship.

wow. that maybe the stupidest thing i have ever seen a football player do. i'll bet he had fun in the locker room and at school on monday. why would there even be someone back there to catch it? if it hits the ground, the game is over?!

Haha, I occasionally played hockey and ran X-C in high school against the team that won. Kind of weird seeing them show up here.... That's Vermont D-II football for you. The ONLY state to never field an NFL starter, if I recall.

I'm pretty sure I've never seen a basketball game end with a score of 3-2 anywhere else either. (In their defense they were just little kids) Thank god for hockey, or else this state would really be awful in sports.

That is just bizarre, because I thought the federation rule was that a field goal was dead as soon as crossed line of scrimmage, with the refs calling good or no good and moving on to the next play.

Still, a dumb coaching move to have two guys back there (no Ben and Jerry's for them), and another dumb move to touch the ball.

I'm trying to find a way to justify NOT losing the game on this move...if only he'd spiked it forward, it would have been a forward pass and the ball would be dead, but he spiked it behind himself and thus it was a live ball. Sparty nooo!